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Before the new, updated Dork books are published, I want you to see what just arrived in my email box! This young man loves to read! His third-grade teacher said she heard giggling from her classroom library. He held up DORK IN DISGUISE and said, "It's me!" I love this picture and this enthusiastic reader! … [Read more...]

Everybody has a past, and our past has shaped us. Our parents, our friends, our culture have made their mark. Of course, everyone responds differently to what surrounds them. Some flourish under pressure, some crack. Some are resentful, some are grateful. Some forgive, others don’t.
How has your character become who she is today? How was she raised? Did she accept authority or rebel? Was life easy or difficult? Did she work hard in school? What did she do in her spare time when she was ten years old? Who were her friends? What inspired her?
Your reader doesn’t need to know everything about … [Read more...]

Voice.
Let’s say you get a text message on your cell phone. If your phone didn’t tell you whose text was coming in, chances are you would recognize who was sending the text if it was someone you knew well. How would you know? By the words used (and their abbreviations), the syntax (the order of the words in the sentence), the grammar, idiom, and rhythms of the sentences (if the text was written in complete sentences). You would recognize the “voice” of the text writer.
Voice in writing develops over time as the writer increases her vocabulary, as she learns to write concisely and … [Read more...]

The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine.
Plot and character development work together in a finely crafted novel. A character wants something but faces difficult circumstances. As she grapples with her problems, she is beaten down by events or her own mistakes. She feels discouraged, flawed, maybe hopeless at times. But little by little, as she feels her way, she learns from her missteps. And she grows stronger. At the end of the novel, we recognize that, whether or not she is successful in getting what she wants, she has developed and changed for the better because of her … [Read more...]